Philadelphia’s Gardens of Delights

An amazing number of wonderful places to visit in the City of Brotherly Love.

From vest-pocket urban green spaces to colossal Edens like Longwood, the former du Pont property that sprawls over 1,050 acres, the Philadelphia area is laden with public gardens. Some hometown boosters claim it has the country’s largest concentration of them. You might even say the city has a plethora of gardens. But plethora means “too many,” and there can never be a surfeit of gardens, can there? Especially not in spring and early summer, when a garden visit can chase away the spirit-dampening effects of a long gray winter. Greater Philadelphia Gardens, a promotional group, lists 29 members. To narrow the field I picked four that charge no admission (Longwood charges $16 per adult), and one, Chanticleer, that costs just $5 for adults. The selection, as it happened, provided a mix of history, terrain, setting and atmosphere — and a few unexpected encounters with wildlife. – From NY Times